Councillor Bill Kendall

Councillor Bill Kendall is proud to be the oldest man in our village and has served continuously on our Parish Council for 38
years. He was born and bred in the village and retains the lovely,
attractively strong local accent that is sadly disappearing fast.
When the houses along the western side of the parish's Brackley
Lane were completed in 1946, Bill lived in the very first house to
be occupied and has lived there ever since.

Sitting in his home with current copies of the British Railways Journal and Railnews scattered over the cushions, Bill explained
that he was a railwayman virtually all his working life. He started
work on 10th September1937 as a Lad Porter at Towcester Station.
This stood where Tesco's store is now situated. He was employed by
The London Midland and Scottish Railway, but all the older men who
worked alongside him had been previously employed by the Stratford,
Midland Junction Railway - the SMJ. A single track from Towcester
Junction traversed the upper Tove Valley passing through Wappenham
Station close by our village. Bill stated that even in those days
before the war the railways were trying to economise. Ted Bosworth
from Abthorpe was the Grade One Porter in charge of Wappenham
Station and was naturally paid more than a boy. Thus when excursion
trains returned to Wappenham Station around midnight after having
taken local people for days out in Stratford upon Avon or Bedford,
Bill would be transferred there from Towcester to collect the
returnees' tickets.

Councillor Kendall can still remember the times of trains leaving and returning to Towcester Station and the times they
called in at Wappenham. At 9:30am the train from Blisworth stopped
en-route to Banbury. The same train then returned calling in at
Wappenham at 11:11am. On a number of occasions he knew that goods
engine crews had "tied down" their locomotive with chains in the
sidings at Wappenham Station and walked the 200 yards to then The
Royal Oak in nearby Slapton for a game of Northamptonshire
skittles. At the beginning of the Second World War Bill briefly
served in The Royal Air Force but he was quickly demobbed and sent
back to the Towcester area to do important war work on the railways
that he loved.

Sitting close to a beautiful wooden chair with London North Western Railway stencilled beneath the seat, Bill explained that it
had once been used in the Northampton Castle Station Master's
office. In order to get away from the hassle of the platforms and
booking hall, the station master would retreat to Bill's signal box
for some peace and quiet. He brought his own chair and left it in
Bill's box. Whilst the box was heated by coke stoves the chair was
fine, but as soon as the railway was electrified the chair was
placed too close to the newly installed electric fires and its glue
melted and the chair disintegrated. When Bill apologised the
Station Master told him to take it home for firewood. Bill took the
pieces to a carpenter in Wappenham who repaired the chair and made
it even better than new.

Bill can eloquently reminisce about days gone by for hours and a number of railway historians regularly ask him to recall his
memories for the historical record. Abthorpe is proud to have such
an interesting person as Bill Kendall as one of its Parish
Councillors.

11th May

Bill Kendall, Abthorpe’s oldest man, has died aged 89. Bill was born and bred in the village and retained the lovely, attractive
local accent that is fast disappearing. He attended Abthorpe
village school and remembered a host of detail about those happy
days before the Second World War including the time when he kicked
a ball through one of the school's windows and as a punishment was
forced to walk round the Vicarage garden each playtime for three
weeks.

He started work on 10th September 1937 as a lad porter at Towcester Station where Tesco's store now stands. That began his
life long career and love of railways. He was employed by the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company, but all the older men
who worked alongside him had been employed by the SMJ - the
Stratford, Midland and Junction Railway. When the war came Bill
briefly served with the Royal Air Force but he was quickly demobbed
and asked to return to the Towcester area for vital war work on the
railways until peace returned in 1945. His last railway job before
he retired was as level crossing keeper on the west coast main line
where the Banbury Lane crossed the tracks.

When in 1946 the houses on the western side of our village's Brackley Lane were completed, Bill lived in the very first house to
be occupied and remained living happily there until he moved into
an Old People's Home in recent years.

Bill was first elected as a Parish Councillor in 1966 and served continuously until very recently. He had a real love for our
village and over the years had built up a huge amount of local
knowledge. He easily recalled events from over 50 years ago and
when a suspected hand grenade was found on a building site Bill
remembered the name of the Home Guard Sergeant who could have been
responsible for its loss. Bill's sister Rene Balderson recalls that
when the District Council laid claim to our village green, Bill and
Dr Vince Sanger the then Chairman of the Parish Council presented
Abthorpe's case before a tribunal. To much local rejoicing the
green was awarded to the village. One consequence was that ever
since villagers have had to mow the grass rather than council
workmen.

Bill, a bachelor, is survived by his sister Rene. She explained that in just over six months she has lost not only Bill, but her
sister Elsie and her other brother Edmund (Shen). Our sympathies go
to Rene and all her extended family.